So it's not technically a photo but I figured it belonged in this topic. Just finished a drawing a Coaster Brookie from the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Apologies for the crappy image. It's a photo taken with my iPhone of the drawing. I'll be getting it high res scanned shortly.

What is a “Coaster Brook Trout”?

A potamodromous population (migrating from rivers to a freshwater lake and back for spawning) in Lake Superior is known as coaster trout or, simply, as coasters that live throughout the year in the lake and migrate into tributaries to spawn in the fall. These fish are unique in that there is no genetic difference from the migratory brookies and the stream resident brookies. Biologists haven’t been able to figure out what causes or triggers the coasters to exit the tributaries. They are characterized by the silvery colour they possess while in the lake and the large sizes they obtain which is primarily due to the higher concentration of food in the lake. They develop the typical brook trout colouring when they enter the rivers to spawn in the fall.

This unique variant of brook trout is isolated to Nipigon Bay in Lake Superior, with only a few tributaries that are visited by spawning coasters. The Nipigon River below Alexander Dam still remains to be the biggest producer of coaster brook trout. Trout Unlimited Canada purchased a property just north of the town of Nipigon to help preserve one of the largest known spawning areas of the coasters. This property is known as Gapen’s Pool, and is one of the most important spawning areas left within the coaster’s range. As of now there is no estimates as to how many coasters are left but due to recent regulation changes and new, slot and catch limits, the future looks good for this unique population.

The world record Brook Trout was taken from the Nipigon River in 1916 and was a Coaster Brook Trout variant. This fish weighed in at 14.5 pounds!

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